The Curse of Live Music

Yes, I know Summerfest ended 3 days ago. Better late than ever - you know that's the unofficial theme of this blog, right? Anyway...

I love Summerfest. A lot. I love seeing great shows from great bands and being outside at night with strings of lights floating above me. The best Summerfest show I've ever seen to date remains my first ever show: Blues Traveler in 2003. They played three encores. THREE! It was amazing. What's better is that I mention this to folks and they say, "Oh yeah, I heard about that show!" Makes me feel happy.

At any rate. This is what I really wanted to get at. Take the following two scenarios:

#1:

You camp out on bleachers for 3 hours and suffer for two not-so-high-caliber bands to see the one band that is worth camping out 3 hours for. The guy the next bleacher over provides a small amount of entertainment as you and your friends try in vain to figure out what combination of acid/speed/heroin/cough syrup/booze he has chosen as his potion for the evening. A pack of teenagers laments their lame parents and the challenges of keeping their shoes clean while they speak of their one friend who isn't there, sometimes happily and sometimes cattily. The show finally does start (even though you missed the opening song because you tried to grab another beer but were thwarted in your efforts to get back to the stage quickly by the afore-mentioned teenagers). You rock out to the second and third song and then settle down a bit as the band plays "one or two things off their new album" - which lasts for 45 minutes. As they start to ramp up again with their more well-known songs, your drug-induced neighbor falls into you, spilling what's left of beer all over your shirt, possibly even stepping on your foot. The pack of teenagers find six more people to stand on the bleachers with them, pushing you awkwardly into the guy next to you who may or may not be named Jethro. The band's most famous song is played and the whole crowd sings, but really, you just can't wait to leave. And you really have to pee.

#2:

You camp out on the bleachers for three hours and see two bands who you really enjoy. The first was a great cover band, who doesn't love them? The second was a local band that you'd heard was good but had never witnessed - until now. They were great! You make friends with the folks around you - not just strategically so they don't get mad when you run to the bathroom, but they actually are legitimately cool people. You add one or two of them on Facebook while you wait and vow to run into each other at next week's something-or-other. One of your new friends even grabs you a beer on their run right before the show starts - and they didn't even roofie it! The band you came to see opens with a killer track, and then jumps right in to an amazing set - you know all the words to everything and so does the entire crowd. They don't have a new album out this year but instead play a deep cut off of their first album from 10 years ago - and it's amazing. You rock out to two encores and hug your new friends on the way out of the gate.

You obviously went into both shows expecting the same amazing experience. Unfortunately it doesn't always turn out that way. I have this same thought every year as I'm planning my Summerfest experience. I usually hope to be pleasantly surprised when I do decide to go - and I hope for this more often than not - but sometimes it does happen. Oh well I suppose. (The real reason I wrote this is because I wanted to describe the guy standing next to you and the game about deciding what drugs he's on.)

In other news, did anyone see QEII's sweet hat today?!?!?!? Someone else please tell me that you think this is amazing:

That's all I've got for now. I hope I can get some good sleep tonight. I put the AC in my window, but my silly studio is kind of a big place to cool. Tomorrow I will buy Tylenol PM - hopefully this will cure my insomnia (well it wouldn't technically be a cure... more of a fix I guess).

I changed the blog background - hoping it encourages me to read more... I'll let you know how that goes.

May Day, a little late

And so, again I find myself here, staring at the New Blog Post screen, tapping out some resolutions for what I have somehow calculated to be the next step in my life. And so, on my last Monday of unemployment, here is what I intend to change for the next however long this stage lasts:

1. Go to the gym. No, really. I went and talked to one of their peeps and got my rate reduced (even though theoretically I would go more if I was paying more... or something).

2. Start (and this time actually finish) Couch to 5k. I know 8 people who have done it, so I can do it too, right?

3. Have a routine. Starting the new job will help with this, which will in turn help with #1 and therefore #2.

4. Discard. I've been doing pretty good at going through my closet and donating stuff I haven't worn in a while, but I need to keep up on it, as there is still a lot of stuff that I don't really need.

5. Eat better. Less stuff that comes in a box, more home cooking. Jason has a really great recipe for this super simple beef/noodle/bok choi dish that I need to get from him when he comes back from his month-long South American adventure. I need to be more mindful of bar food (and my weakness, buffalo anything), and make a better effort to plan when/where I'm going to eat so I can avoid convenience food. And maybe I can finally get to work on seasoning and using my cast iron skillet and dutch oven. Sounds easy, right?

6. Read more. I WILL read for 30 mins a day at least 3 times a week. I have a whole mess of books that I really want to read but haven't touched. I keep collecting them. They look so inviting, with their covers and their word-filled pages. But do I open them? No. That will change.

That's all I've got for now. Anybody have any tips on actually accomplishing stuff?

On News Polling...

(click on image to see the whole thing)

(via)

By now, you may be aware of some of my opinions toward the news media. This comic made me chuckle, and is a perfect example of how nobody cares about how three people voted in your stupid website poll. "Horse Race" news coverage of politics are killing our country. Come November of each even year, I'm sure that the average news watcher could tell you who is ahead in the polls, but I'm willing to bet that they're significantly less likely to be able to tell you who is pro-this or anti-that, or even what party each candidate is with.

(Note: Paul Brewer is the most awesome professors I have ever had. I took a whole class on this topic and it was AWESOME.)

An Open Letter to Milwaukee TV News Stations

Dear Milwaukee TV news stations,

I love Milwaukee. I really do. I've lived here for 8 1/2 years now and I've realized something: Like most of the rest of Wisconsin (and half of the country), IT SNOWS HERE. You seem to be the only people in the city who are surprised by this time and time again. Why you find the need to begin your broadcast day 3 hours early, or stand outside in the snow and tell people it's snowing never ceases to amaze me.

Though I'm sure a rare breed does somewhere exist, I can't think of anyone that I know personally who wakes up with you at 3 a.m. to watch you stand outside in the snow and tell people it's snowing. And though I know some folks are less fortunate than I, the vast majority of us have windows in our homes, and at the very least have doors that we can walk out of to assess the weather situations ourselves (should we so desire).

Now, I'm not saying that it's not helpful to know how much snow we may expect, or even when the snow will start and end, or where the heaviest snow will occur. This information is all good and helpful and - wait for it - can be relayed in less than 5 minutes. This leaves you with another 25 minutes (well, 20 after commercials are removed) of your broadcast time to tell us about other news. Believe it or not, there are still things happening in other parts of the state/country/world, even when there's snow in Milwaukee.

Regarding our city's snow removal efforts, I'm curious: Will the snow not be plowed if you don't tell us that 100+ pieces of snow removal equipment are being readied by the county? Will the salt not be applied to the streets if you don't tell us how many tons of it they are expected to use over the next 24 hours? Is there some innate fear that we will all be snowed in to our houses and be forced to dig a tunnel to the local grocery store for rations if you don't report that snow plow blades are being affixed to garbage trucks to aid in digging us out of this latest snow disaster?

What's next, "Sun Watch," a segment where someone sits on the shores of Lake Michigan and waits for the sun to rise each day? If you don't have a cameraman out there getting some "B" roll, will Milwaukee still be warmed by the rays of the sun? Perhaps we can find a flower blossoming somewhere in the spring and go on "Daisy Watch" for a week and talk day and night about when it might open and how it might affect our lives - and whether or not school will be canceled the next day because of it.

And so, dear Milwaukee TV news stations, I leave you with this simple request: You can tell us that it will snow. You can tell us when and how much to expect. But don't dedicate every waking moment to it. Don't dedicate 24 of your precious 25 minutes of evening news to coverage of something that occurs 10+ times per year in our dear city. You're instilling pandemic-like fear on the people of Milwaukee every time you cut in to our programs 'already in progress' to tell us that, just like when you cut in 25 minutes ago, it's still snowing. And I hate to break it to you, but there's not much you or I can do to stop it. So maybe we should just let it happen, and perhaps find something else to talk about. Isn't there a water-skiing squirrel somewhere that you can air? Or how about some in-depth analysis on what exactly is going on in Yemen? (I'm pretty sure the Yemen situation will still be around long after all the snow melts.)

Oh yeah... the snow will melt.

Oh yeah - one more!

In addition to my 2010 resolutions posted earlier today, I have decided that I will now delete Facebook friends if they come up in my news feed and I say "Who the heck is that?" The only exception will be folks who have recently been married*. I already deleted one person today.

Note to friends: If you get married and change your name, can you at least put your old name in parens so I know who you are? Love, me.

Bandwagon!

Everybody else is doing it..... so, without any further procrastination, here are my 2010 resolutions. Note that they won't actually start until tomorrow (hah... joke about procrastination and how resolutions don't take effect until 5 days into the new year......)

Start small, gain little victories and work your way up:

1. Figure out how much it costs to mail postcards/letters to Prague and Gießen so I can send stuff to my friends that live there / are moving there
2. Snowboard 10 times in the 09-10 season. (one down, 9 to go)
3. Learn to ride rails and do jumps without falling (bruise myself less)
   
4. Blog more (I'm pretty sure this was also a [failed] 2009 resolution....)
5. Read 1 book per month
   
6. Get my act together and find myself a job (so I can afford a beach vacation)
7. Drop 30 lbs (so I can be seen on a beach while on vacation)
8. I'm sure you can all see where this is leading.... GO ON A BEACH VACATION!!!
9. Seems counter-intuitive, given #s 2, 6 and 8, but: pay down/off my CCs.
   

Seems totally doable, right? I think so. I would also like to note that Jason is exactly 50% responsible if I fail at #7. I have also nominated someone (without his knowledge) to be responsible for #s 2 and 3.

As for the rest of it, here goes nothing I suppose. Words of encouragement and/or threats for failure are welcome.

Milwaukee Film Festival Staff Picks

As some of you may know, my most recent gig is that of Volunteer Coordinator for the Milwaukee Film Festival. As such, I was quite excited when I was assigned awarded the opportunity to make my staff picks for the films I hope to see. Here they are again, for your reading pleasure:

Art & Copy
Saturday, Sept 26, 5:15pm | North Shore Cinema
Tuesday, Sept 29, 5:30pm | Oriental Theatre
USA | 2008 | 89 min | English

I am always intrigued by the stories of people behind the 'big' things we see in our society - the architect of a building, the leader of a company or the creator of a campaign. As a media studies junkie, I'm looking forward to seeing Art & Copy to hear the stories of the advertisers who have shaped our society and to learn about the hurdles that were overcome in the process.

The House of the Devil
Friday, Sept 25, Midnight | Oriental Theatre
Tuesday, Sept 29, 9:30pm | North Shore Cinema
USA | 2009 | 93 min | English

I'm not normally one for horror flicks, but I think it's healthy for everyone to get scared senseless every now and again. I'll be at the Midnight showing, and probably won't get a wink of sleep that night.

Bronson
Friday, Sept 25, 10:00pm | Oriental Theatre
Tuesday, Sept 29, 7:15pm | North Shore Cinema
UK | 2009 | 92 min | English












Having known nothing about this film, I was initially drawn to it by this image - Bronson, looking through a window with a joyful smile on his face. I thought it seemed like a really sweet, uplifting movie - until I read the synopsis - which then made me even more excited to see it, in one of those I-watch-way-too-much-CSI sort of ways.


So, folks, there you have it. In a shameless-self-promotion sort of way, I still need Volunteers! You can get a free t-shirt AND spend quality time with yours truly! Click here to sign up.

Tickets and Festival Passes are available now - visit our online Box Office or drop in to our Box Office at the Landmark Oriental Theatre to buy your tickets now!